Dancing queen...

Claire followed up her New Years horn blowing festivities with a little dancing....thinking she might try out for "So You Think You Can Dance" pretty soon!

Happy New Year!

Given about 30 minutes before this video was taken she burst into tears when I blew the party horn, I'd say she warmed up to it pretty quickly! Happy New Year from Claire to all her faithful readers:)

Christmas fun

Claire had a great time sitting on presents, climbing into the boxes presents came from and surrounding herself with wrap and tissue paper and throwing it all in the air! (oh yeah, and the opening of presents was pretty fun too!)

Claire meets Santa

....and she's not impressed. Needless to say the visit was short.

Favourite things update

It's been awhile since I've documented Claire's favourite things....rolling around the living room with piles of pillows and blankets, reading books, playing peek-a-boo under the furniture and eating mounds of hummus and blueberries are some of her current faves.

Chatty girl

While it's not always clear to us what she's saying, we're pretty sure she knows what it is...

And just a few more.....(centric photography part 3)

Couldn't resist just a few more shots...

Centric Photography: Part One

Back in October we had a great time having some photos taken by the very talented Stephanie Rae of Centric Photography. Claire enjoyed hamming it up in front of the camera and we had a perfect crisp October day on the grounds at Queen Alexandra for our photoshoot. It's taken forever to pic the faves out of the nearly 100 photos she gave us- this is just a small sampling!

Centricphotos: Part 2

From the beach we moved up to a gorgeous old Oak Tree on the QA property- with perfect October light filtering through the trees.

All tuckered out...

...the last weeks festivities have caught up with our little gal, who spent Sunday refusing to nap her crib, but unsuccessfully fighting sleep while in her stroller (despite that chilly chilly air!) and while out running errands.

Happy 1st Birthday: Part 3 (phew!)

Daddy and Nanny Mare hosted a fantastic first birthday party for Claire this weekend- complete with a homemade Polar Bear Cake (which Claire thoroughly enjoyed), lots of kids to play with and lots of family and friends to help celebrate this milestone in her life. She's a lucky girl to have so many great people in her life!

First Birthday: Part 2

Presents, ribbon and a pink cupcake (of which she only ate the icing)....a perfect evening to celebrate her first birthday!

Happy First Birthday! (part 1)

A playdate with her baby buddies, her first taste of icing and a visit to the park (between rainshowers).....what more could a one year old ask for? (oh- a great dinner and more icing with her favourite peeps- photos to follow)

Just Claire

....being herself. She's becoming a fan of hiking in her backpack carrier- we took advantage of yesterdays nice weather to go around Thetis Lake. Claire had great fun directing us, banging on Mark's head and checking out all the dogs on the trail.
Her fave new pastime is gazing out the living room window (and munching on the windowsill, which is starting to look like a small beaver has been at work!)

We love fall

Crisp sunny days perfect for feeding ducks oats (and perhaps sampling one or two), showing off her new ability to sign 'more' on the swing, and playing in big piles of still dry leaves.